Ukraine war: Nato pledges more advanced air defences to Kyiv

Patriot missiles - like this one in an archive photo - are capable of shooting down high-speed targets

Nato will give Ukraine more advanced air defences after urgent Kyiv pleas and deadly Russian attacks, military bloc head Jens Stoltenberg has said.

His comments come after a crisis Nato-Ukraine summit on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv needed "seven more Patriots or similar air defence systems" to defend the country's cities.

Seven people, including two children, were killed in Russian missile strikes on Friday, Ukrainian officials said.

In other key developments on Friday:

• Ukraine claimed it had downed for the first time a strategic long-range bomber deep in Russian territory. Moscow blamed a technical malfunction for the crash

• After months of delay, the US Congress moved a step closer to passing a $60.8bn (£49bn) aid bill to Ukraine

Speaking after the Nato-Ukraine Council summit held by video link, Mr Stoltenberg said: "Nato defence ministers have agreed to step up and provide further military support, including more air defence."

He said the 32-member bloc "has mapped out existing capabilities across the alliance and there are systems that can be made available to Ukraine".

"So I expect new announcements on air defence capabilities for Ukraine soon," he added.

The Nato chief said there were Patriot and other advanced air defence systems available in stocks of Nato countries that could be given to Ukraine - but he gave no details about what exactly Kyiv might get.

Last week, Germany pledged to supply Kyiv with a third US-made Patriot battery out of its military stocks.

Ukraine currently has several Patriot systems, but not enough to defend its cities from massive Russian attacks.

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Meanwhile, President Zelensky said after the summit: "We need seven more Patriots or similar air defence systems, and it's a minimum number. They can save many lives and really change the situation. You [Nato] have such systems."

The Ukrainian leader laid out four other key priorities Kyiv has long been pressing for:

• One million artillery shells

• Long-range weaponry

• Advanced warplanes

• Speed of delivery

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is in its third year now, and there are no signs that Europe's biggest land war since World War Two might end any time soon.

Moscow's troops have recently been making steady - albeit slow - advances in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv faces critical arms shortages.

Mr Zelensky recently admitted that Ukraine is outgunned and could lose the war without urgent Western military aid.

Ukraine is critically dependent on advanced armoury supplies from its Western allies, particularly the US, to be able to continue fighting Russia - a far bigger military force with an abundance of artillery ammunition.

The train station in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro was damaged in Friday's Russian attack

Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian officials said seven people, including a boy and a girl, were killed and more than 30 injured in Russian missile strikes on Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region.

The northern city of Chernihiv was struck in Russia's deadliest attack for some time earlier this week, leaving 18 dead and dozens wounded.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Air Force said it had brought down a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber 300km (186 miles) from Ukrainian territory.

It said the plane eventually went down in Russia's Stavropol region after it had launched a missile strike on Ukraine.

Regional governor Vladimir Vladimirov said the plane had gone down in a district to the north of Stavropol

Ukraine's defence intelligence described the strike as a special operation similar to January's attack on a Russian A-50 spy plane.

Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told BBC Ukraine that "we waited for a long time, prepared, and finally succeeded".

A source in Ukraine's intelligence later told the BBC the Russian bomber was shot down on Friday using a Soviet-era S-200 air defence system, which is believed to have been upgraded.

Unverified footage showed a plane on fire spiralling out of control and falling to the ground.

Russia's defence ministry blamed a technical malfunction after the bomber had carried out a "combat task".

Two pilots had been found alive, a third crew member was killed and rescue services were looking for a fourth, Stavropol's regional governor said.